I Gray
as all
LS nameiij
>f the
ey was i
» the
aters n
‘ndenniajl
reeman, 1
Nader Knocks ‘The Bloated Bureaucracy’ And Big Business
■m
m
, tel
k
m
mm
m
I w%
l
r
l'.
By DEBI BLACKMON
The “bloated bureaucracy” and
the U. S. Department of Big Busi
ness are Ralph Nader’s pet peeves
these days.
Ralph Nader, consumer advo
cate and activist lawyer whose
name has become a household
word, spoke strongly about cur
rent government problems Wed
nesday night in G. Rollie White
Coliseum in a Political Forum-
Great Issues pi'esentation.
“There exists in our govern
ment a triangle phenomenon—big
business, our executive branch
and Congress — and something
needs to be done about all of
them.”
Referring to President Nixon’s
struggle with Congress over fund
impoundments, Nader gave his
view of the history of the prob
lem.
“As year after year went by
programs concerning military,
education and domestic affairs
were passed by Congress, and
more and more powers were giv
en to the President.
“It’s gotten where all these pro
grams’ special privileges are over
lapping. Now we don’t know
what the President can’t do.”
“President Nixon doesn’t need
any more laws from Congress. He
has set up his own “little Con
gress” in the White House.
“This is authoritarianism—one
man rule,” he concluded.
“Congress is still there on the
hill. You could call it the ‘With
ering Heights’ because power is
being shifted to the White
House.”
Nader referred to the Anti-De
ficiency Act with which President
Nixon justifies impounding Con
gressional funds.
“The intention was to give a
President a little authority to
withhold funds limited to ‘un
usual circumstances.’ The White
House has gotten a hold of it and
is using it to withhold funds ap
proved by Congress on an unlim
ited basis,” Nader said.
“Withholding the taxpayers
money is not the real issue here.
It involves a very important ques
tion—Who makes the decision?”
By law the congress is the in
stitution closest to the people and
the most accountable according to
Nader. He considers the White
House’s interference as a pretty
serious thing.
“This leads to the domestic
Vietnam-type decisions.”
Nader explained that the Con
gress and the executive branch
begin with about the same amount
of power, with laws allowing them
to check and balance each other.
“The executive branch has be
come a monster.
“It’s such a bloated bureaucracy
that it will be a long time before
it can be made responsible to the
voters from whom it gets its le
gality,” Nader said.
Nader said the concept of the
“controlled society” has fallacies
of the utmost seriousness. He
discussed pressures large corpor
ations have on governmental
bodies.
“We have the technology to re
duce many prices today, but cor
porations like GM, AT&T and
EXXON are fighting the onset of
such technology.”
Nader concluded that many new
technological concepts are being
shelved because they would pro
vide more efficient methods of
production, thus cutting the large
corporations’ prices.
“Inefficiency makes them mon
ey.”
Promoting citizen activism, Na
der urged that students think
about engaging themselves in the
turmoils of the times.
“I want you to leave college
and find a job where you can use
your professional skills and own
value systems with conviction.
“I don’t want you to become
bureaucratic cogs.”
m
Che Battalion
Ralph Nader
Vol. 67 No. 216
College Station, Texas Thursday, February 15, 1973
845-2226
MFante Fewer Computer Systems
Ofillst
Br'vojeil;
iller W arns Of T echnology T akeover
fliti :
LARRY MARSHALL
ff Writer
Wety is at 1984 minus 11 and
jnting, declared Arthur R. Mil-
Wednesday in describing the
mding ‘computer privacy di-
faced by citizens of the
States at the opening
leers’ session of SCON A
III.
Advancing technology in the
of computer data storage,
oMiIpthreatening to overtake the
onal freedom and privacy of
individual, the Harvard law
essor noted. He cited recent
osures of the data banks of
iral government and military
as a basis for this con-
rpp;
M
I
M
M
2?$
Incies
he Army Military Intelligence
item, which Miller called “the
indaddy of them all,” was re-
ntly shown to have over seven
million entries. Its purpose is to
list radical and subversive ele
ments of society, but in reality
contains the names of many
prominent clergymen, congress
men, judges, newsmen and reform
workers.
However, Miller emphasized,
the real problem here is one of
controlling this technology so it
will work for mankind instead of
against it. One of the pluses of
computer development is in the
field of medicine. Here there are
new programs to monitor heart
attack patients in an attempt to
formulate an early warning plan
of symptoms.
But with a few more advances
in technology, a similar set-up
could be used to locate people,
sense feelings and even monitor
thoughts. A Harvard professor
has been able to sense colors
SCON A And Other
Activities This Week
FRIDAY
8:30 a.m. Fourth Roundtable
8:30 a.m. Fourth Round-Table Session*
10:30 a.m. Dr. Jack Michael, “Behavioral Determinism and
the Controlled Society,” MSC Ballroom
12:45 p.m. “Conversation with B. F. Skinner,” MSC
Assembly Room
1:30 p.m. Dr. Paul Saltman, “Science, Biology, and
Control,” MSC Ballroom
3:00 p.m. Fifth Round-Table Session
5:00 p.m. “Man-Made Man,” MSC Assembly Room
8:30 p.m. Senator Walter F. Mondale, “The Controlled
Society,” MSC Ballroom
*Roundtables in MSC Rooms 2A/B, 2C/D, 3B/C, 3D,
Birch, Assembly, Art and Social Rooms.
1
ilgic’s Father Is
lie Of The Lucky
A
|The family of Air Force Col.
imuel R. Johnson is one of the
cky ones, according to his Texas
IM son.
^ol. Johnson was among 143
fieriean military and civilian
|rsonnel freed Monday in South-
st Asia. His wife, son and three
page daughters patiently wait
Vietnam war POW’s return
Dm Clark Field in the Philip-
Bob Johnson expects his father
’ID /Ifi k® back in Texas next week,
Ayjpssibly by the weekend.
probably helped Dad out,
lowing we were a little older
could help ourselves. Fami-
Wu r s w 'tb v e r y young children
' have had a rough time,”
Ided the Texas A&M University
nior who was a Plano High
'rtiwhool freshman when Col. John-
AWon was captured.
He pointed out that a large
lumber of Americans thought by
e military services to be POWs
ire not on lists provided by the
orth Vietnamese Communists.
“There are 382 Americans still
held prisoner in North Korea,”
h /* oung Johnson soberly reflected.
JHjuBThey haven’t been seen since
or 1953. I guess our family
» T ^ is really lucky.”
The TAMU senior physics
major last saw his father at
University National Bank
|“0n the side of Texas A&M.”
Adv.
Christmas, 1965. Col. Johnson,
an F4 Phantom pilot, returned to
flight duty in Thailand and on
April 16, 1966, was downed by
ground fire and captured near
the DMZ.
Reports that he was captured
came in 1968. Bob’s family first
received mail from him in 1970.
They got 30 letters and the Texas
A&M student credited much of
the mail to efforts of H. Ross
Perot and American sentiment.
“I was in bed when the TV
coverage at Clark Field started,”
related Johnson, who transferred
to Texas A&M from Navarro
Junior College and plans to stay
for a master’s in physics. “My
sister called and said everybody
at home was up watching.”
“I ran downstairs, turned on
the lounge TV and got in while
the second plane was unloading,”
he added. “Dad wasn’t on that
one and things became grim.”
“But he was on the third plane,”
Johnson grinned. “He looked a
little thin but fine otherwise. He
nearly ran down the ramp.”
A Tuesday call from Plano re
vealed Mrs. Johnson had talked
with her husband. He will fly in
to Sheppard AFB at Wichita
Falls, one of two regional bases
in Texas handling the returning
POWs.
Bob plans to become an astro
physicist, but has found concen
tration on studies hard to come
by this week.
through sensors in a robot from
25 miles away already, Miller
said.
“There are many good bona
fide reasons for using computers
and compiling banks of informa
tion about people, I’m not against
that. But we have paid no atten
tion to restraint,” he said.
’36 Marijuana
Film Is Slated
For Saturday
“Reefer Madness” featuring
marijuana, the “weed from the
devil’s garden,” will be shown to
the general public as the conclu
sion to SCONA XVIII.
The film is “a major influence
in forming the attitudes that led
to the present legal situation re
garding marijuana,” according to
Kevin Saunders, ABC-TV.
The anti-marijuana propaganda
film features such actors as Dave
O’Brien, Lillian Miles, Dorthy
Short and Carleton Young in
scenes as smokers raping, mur
dering, plundering, etc;
“The worst film I can recall
sitting through . . . ever,” said
Saunders. “A young victim is se
duced into smoking the devil weed
. . No one seems to inhale, but it
must be powerful stuff.”
“Before the film is over, they
all become scrambling maniacs
lumbering around like Franken
stein monsters, murdering people,
leaping out of twelfth floor win
dows and tearing at their throats
shouting ‘Give me a reefer!’,” con
tinued Saunders.
The NORML film (National Or
ganization for the Reform Of
Marijuana Laws) will be shown
on behalf of the Student Govern
ment along with W. C. Fields
flicks. Free color “Reefer Mad
ness” posters will be given to
everyone.
The film will be shown Satur
day in the Memorial Student Cen
ter Ballroom at 7, 8:30, 10 and
11:30 p.m. for $1 admission.
Lack of restraint is what has
led to the present situation, and
what could let this grow until it
severely inhibits our civil liber
ties, commented Miller. “If a per
son knows his name is on a gov
ernment list, it will normally re
strain his activities.”
In the recent Pentagon Papers
case, Miller noted, the printers of
the Papers, Beacon Press in Bos
ton, were under FBI surveillance.
An FBI report showed data on
employees, customers and people
in contact with the press, a Uni
tarian affiliated business. As a
result, the rate of employes quit
ting increased, business dropped
and even church attendance in the
Boston area declined, said Miller.
As a possible way out of the
present dilemma, he proposed five
guidelines, which he called “Mil
ler’s Platitudes.” These are:
1. The establishment of a code
among information handlers, if
not by law at least by morals, to
spur fairer dealing, better accur
acy and more discretion with re
gard to people affected by the
data.
2. Set standards on what infor
mation could be collected and
stored in the data banks. Much
of what is in these today is not
pertinent.
3. The development of com
puter systems to make these data
Golf Course
Remains Open
The A&M golf course will not
close today for completion of the
renovation project as was sched
uled.
Due to bad weather, nine holes
and the snack bar will remain
open until further notice, accord
ing to Luke Harrison, golf course
manager.
The course is still scheduled to
reopen in June with the project
completed.
banks safe from improper access.
All users should be positively
identified and be questioned as to
their usage of the system prior
to use.
4. Make the files open to the
subject. Presently, it seems many
times the only person who can
not see these is the subject him
self.
5. Do not allow the informa
tion to petrify. As data becomes
outdated, remove it. If not de
stroyed, at least place it in a dead
file.
Miller summed up his presen
tation with an adaptation of a
quotation saying, “If it should be
a dictatorship of data banks and
dossiers, rather than hobnail
boots, it will be no less a dictator
ship.”
INFORMATION RETENTION received a fair-sized
blast from Harvard professor Arthur R. Miller Wednesday.
Miller, speaking for SCONA XVIII, condemed information
misuse for which no controls have been provided. (Photo
by Steve Krauss)
Student Aid, Air Fares To
Highlight NSL’s Conference
Several hundred students from
all over the country will converge
on Congress Feb. 28 to March 2
to talk to Senators and Congress
men about student financial aid,
minimum wage for students, air
line discount fares, newspersons’
rights and other issues.
The students are among the
nearly two million represented by
the growing National Student
Lobby (NSL), founded in 1971.
One goal of these people, who
will be attending NSL’s Second
Annual Conference, will be full
funding of the Basic Opportunity
Grants (BOG) program to chan
nel an additional $1 billion per
year directly to needy students.
The program is also crucial for
middle-income students because
its funding will greatly ease the
pressure for sharp tuition raises.
The students, who will register
as lobbyists, will also urge no cuts
on existing student aid programs
such as grants, fellowships, work-
study and loans.
Last year’s Lobby Conference
delegates were instrumental in
convincing the House-Senate con
ference committee on the Higher
Education Act to authorize the
landmark BOG program by one
vote and to support student rep
resentation on college boards of
trustees.
Other major student goals are:
(1) Defeat of an amendment
by Cong. John Erlenborn (R-Ill.)
allowing employers to hire stu
dents (under 21) and youth (un
der 18) at 80 per cent of the reg
ular minimum wage. The amend
ment passed the House, but not
the Senate, last year and was
strongly supported by McDon
ald’s Restaurants.
(2) Passage of bills offered
by Sen. Frank Moss (D-Utah),
Cong. Harley Staggers (D-W.Va.)
and Cong. William Keating (R-
Ohio) permitting youth and sen
ior citizen discount air fares de
spite the December Civil Aero
nautics Board elimination of
youth fares.
(3) Passage of a bill prevent
ing federal authorities from forc
ing newspersons, including stu
dent newspersons, from disclosing
confidential information or the
sources of such information.
Former Newark Evening News
Reporter Peter Bridge, recently
released from jail, will address
the conference and meet with stu
dents informally.
Also giving major speeches will
be Cong. Shirley Chisholm (D-
N.Y.) and Americans for Demo
cratic Action Chairman A1 Low-
enstein, former president of the
National Student Association and
the man who persuaded Eugene
McCarthy to run for President in
1968.
Besides listening to Lowenstein,
former peace activists will lobby
for limits on Presidential war
powers to prevent future wars
such as in Vietnam without a
vote by Congress, an end to the
(See Student Aid, page 3)
START TO FINISH . . . An isolated swimmer recalls his performance
in an earlier event. The faceless Aggie could be contemplating his win or
loss while catching his breath after his endeavor. Photographer Steve
Ueckert took these shots during the A&M-Arkansas swim meet held here
recently.
>